Rural Vladslo

We meet in Vladslo near Diksmuide, on Vladsloplein (V) with its church and town hall. Choose a not too hot, sunny day for this walk, because you spend a lot of time in the open field. There is quite a bit of asphalt to walk. As a result, the walk is also feasible with a robust stroller, provided that some extra helpful muscle power is provided every now and then. Walk with the church on your left into the Beerststraat and at cycle junction 14 take the first street on the right, the winding Gentweg, immediately into open countryside. At house number 39 turn left onto the Vladslo-Ambacht Hiking Trail and after the first bend you immediately take the right on the footpath through the fields. The path turns into a cobblestone road with red and white GR sign. Cross the N363 and into Hazewindmolenstraat. At the T-junction you keep right, onto the Brugse Heerweg, and at the chapel of Our Lady of Peace 1 – it doesn't say that, but it is – right again. At the first large farm on your right, turn left into the earth road, flanked by rows of oak trees. At the red fence and over the stream straight ahead into the Praatbos. Here the path can be a bit soggy. At the first intersection with the poem Ons bos 2 by Maarten Crappé, choose the path on the left. At another intersection at a barrier, turn right until you reach an asphalt road. Walk right here until you reach the German Military Cemetery '14-'18 3 and the famous statue Mourning Parents by Käthe Kollwitz. The German artist made the sculpture after she herself lost her son Peter in an attack on Diksmuide. You return to your steps, follow the roadway for a while and turn right past the Hoeve Praet Bos, again onto the Brugse Heerweg. After a while you walk into Koekelare. You turn right-left along with the asphalt and turn right at the first intersection into the Westveldweg. A few hundred meters further you leave the asphalt in the bend for an earth path to the left. At a pole with pictures of dogs on a leash / horses / bicycles straight ahead, first along the edge of the forest and then through the forest with conifers on the right and mixed forest with beech trees on the left. Ignore side roads and continue to the intersection with an asphalt road. Only when you have crossed that asphalt road, you turn right in the forest. There are quite a few rest benches here. Once again cross asphalt and walk through this wooded pedestrian area to an intersection with a picnic bench. On the right there is an information board about the Koekelarebos 4 at a parking space, but you still choose on the left. On the next path to the right, along with the red and white GR. The forest on the left is officially a play zone. You carefully cross the N363 again, walk straight for 70 m and then turn right again until you reach the road to Bovekerke, 200 m away. On the other side you are in the Arboretum of Koekelare 5, with information board. For the walk, however, walk left onto the cycle path next to the roadway and about 100 m past the edge of the forest take the Noordstraat on the right, direction Moscou. The Kremlin is not on the route, but 600 m away – at house number 68 – you go straight ahead, along with the sign of the Kooklarenoeneroute. 800 m further on there is an old signpost at a triple jump in the fields. Continue straight towards Vladslo, a cobblestone road this time. If you look to the right, in the forest behind the fields is the Castle of Ter Heide. We would have liked to walk past it, but too much barbed wire and no access signs took away the lust. A shame, because it is a beautiful place and hikers on the path well around the castle can not really disturb. You walk lustily for 900 m over the cobblestones to the chapel of Our Lady of La Salette 6, just before a sharp bend. Do not bend, but choose the left for the narrower Noordstraat, along to cycle junction 38. You arrive at the Werkenstraat. Carefully turn right and bite through on that unsociable road. 800 m further, the street on the left takes you again to Vladsloplein.